Philosophy and the Evolution of Consciousness: Owen Barfield's Saving the Appearances

The history of philosophy has been studied as if it were a long discussion between participants of differing opinions living in different ages, but all in the same world. Though Heraclitus and Descartes can no longer respond to new questions or current attacks on their positions, nevertheless, to the degree that we are all human, and all live in the same world, such questions and attacks are reasonably fair.Until recently. In the last 50 years, the significance of the qualifier "to the degree that" has changed radically. What if it turns out that, as far as living in the same world goes, we today actually have very little in common with Heraclitus, or even Descartes? Then we are attempting to carry on discussions with participants who are not our contemporaries, and the world they were speculating about is not the same world we today are speculating about. Then the nature of the discussion - the history of philosophy - takes on a very different character.Philosophy and the Evolution of Consciousness takes talk of "alternative conceptual schemes" current in philosophy today and applies it in the very place most likely to warrant the change: the history of philosophy itself.

Two distinct, though not independent, streams of thought are evident in the history of western philosophy: Thinking about the world, and thinking about thinking. In turn, the latter stream has two distinct streams: Thinking about one's own thinking, and thinking about the thinking of others.

'Thinking about the world' eventually took a path of its own and became science. In fact, at a midpoint in that progression, there were thinkers known as 'natural philosophers.' 'Thinking about one's own thinking,' to the degree that it was a personal activity, and hence an aspect or function of personality, also took a turn on its own, and became psychology.

For a time, then, what was called philosophy was engaged primarily in the activity of 'thinking about the thinking of others.' And for a time, philosophy was engaged in this activity while uninformed - or un-infused - by science and psychology.

During philosophy's deepest estrangement from the other streams, in 1957, Owen Barfield published his book Saving the Appearances: A Study in Idolatry. In that book Barfield attempted to bring philosophy, psychology and science together long enough to help the reader see that a) though they were distinct, even now the streams were not independent of one another, and that b) granting that dependence leads to some very startling consequences regarding the nature and history of human thinking - and therefore the nature and history of philosophy, and of the world.

Philosophy and the Evolution of Consciousness takes the reader through a short study of Barfield's Saving the Appearances, and then follows those startling consequences through the pages of traditional western philosophy. What rewards the reader is an introduction to an original thinker whose work deserves long and deep attention; a short tour of major figures in western philosophy; and an exciting look at the latter through the eyes of the former.